Prior to this year, I would have given Summer Wonders a 5 star rating. My son attended it for four years in a row and he looked forward to it every year. In his earlier elementary years, it felt like this summer camp was the only time he learned something outside of our home because he was so bored in school and far beyond his peers. Each year at this camp, some unexpected topic would inspire his latest interest/obsession and it was such a wonderful thing to see. Every year he had a difficult time only picking 5 choices (you pick 5 classes, rate them in order, and you get assigned 3 of them) and disappointed he couldn't have every pick because there were only 3 classes you could take each session (we usually did Session 1 and Session 2).
Every year, that is, UNTIL this year. This year when I showed him the course list I got one "YES!!!" and the rest of the classes were "meh" for the sessions he usually intended. What? How could this be? What had happened to the Summer Wonders program where my child who could not wait to go back and see what was offered, suddenly lacked the excitement that was typically off the charts each year? Was it age? Had he outgrown the program? Why such a lackluster response to the courses/topics listed when in the past he would have happily taken 5 (or more) courses listed in each session if he could?
The answer was surprisingly simple: the two founders who brought this program (and formed ACE Academy) are no longer affiliated with Summer Wonders (or ACE). It is "under new management" if you will.
Thankfully, one of those founders has created a new camp for gifted children called Inspiring Minds. The program has as nearly identical set up, but lacks the familiar name of Summer Wonders. You can do only morning (we've always done all day), pick 5 sessions, get to take three.
I let my son choose. We did what we do each year. We went through the course lists and picked out his top 5 choices (and ranked them). I made it clear that there would not be gaga ball (a game he grew to LOVE at Summer Wonders campus... and I mean LOVE) if he attended Inspiring Minds.
And when he read the Inspiring Minds course list, THERE was the reaction I'd learned to expect from the past years of Summer Wonders. The excitement. The joy. The interest. The craving to learn and delve into a topic.
His final choice of camp speaks for itself: he could barely find 5 choices in the first session of Summer Wonders courses, one of which he really wanted to do and had excitement for. The second Summer Wonder session he only found two classes, one of which he liked, not able to find a full five. When presented with the option to do session 1 of Summer Wonders and the second session at Inspiring Minds and he compared both session 1's back to back, he sighed in defeat (because no gaga ball), and picked Inspiring Minds.
Now it is possible that Summer Wonders could still be amazing this summer. I know some staff will still remain, and many of them are wonderful. However, if you don't have the topics that truly engage my son's interest, something is broken. (Again, this has never happened before.)
Simply keep this in mind when reading reviews: 2016 and earlier and then 2017 and after.
I'll be sure to review Inquiring Minds after camp this summer as well.
The bottom line is: I send my child to camp not because I have to (I have that priviledge), but because he needs to engage his brain, create, imagine, design, and learn and (in the past) camp was the best way to do that. He learned about black holes and super nova stars at age 7 in more depth than I ever had.
But if that camp (Summer Wonders) can no longer design a course list that truly calls to him, then it isn't the perfect fit it once was. Maybe it's an off year, maybe the founder just had the experience necessary to know what sparks minds like his and the new management hasn't learned yet. I don't know.
What I do know is we will not be returning to Summer Wonders for a 5th year and he is sad about that as it became a place he loved to be and couldn't wait to attend.
So be wary of the new management, as simply by the courses listed, it no longer measures up to previous years. read more